I expect newbies to behave like idiots.

It's annoying, it's frustrating, but it's a fact of life. Newbies don't know netiquette - by their very definition, in fact. They don't know that flaming is bad. THEY DON'T REALIZE THAT TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS CALLED SHOUTING AND IT'S DAMN RUDE! They don't understand the concept of case-sensitive passwords, proper email format (all addresses must have foo@bar.com) and a whole host of other things that annoy power users like myself.

It's expected.

What's not expected is this same type of behavior on a web design mailing list. When I sign up for one of these, I have certain expectations - that the people with whom I share residence on the list have a certain amount of knowledge and experience with the Internet, email, and computers in general.

Grr. Nope.

I call it a "cascade" - stupid (and I *do* mean STUPID) users who have subscribed themselves to a mailing list without bothering to learn the rules of how email works. Months go by (it's a quiet list) and they forget they've subscribed. Someone sends a message to the list and they freak, demand to be unsubscribed, spam the list with threats of lawsuits and the like.

They do this, of course, using the "Reply to All" function, thereby making sure that EVERYONE else on the list also gets to read their rantings and ravings.

The next person gets their rant, freaks, and sends their own rant to the list.

Making sure to use the Reply to All function, of course.

That way I'm treated to 40 infantile rants in my inbox on a Monday morning.

Funniest thing of all: it took me less than 2 minutes to unsubscribe myself. All I had to do was follow the link at the end of *every* post, type in my email address and password, and click the "unsubscribe" button.

If you are only marginally understanding this rant, let me give you a tip, completely free of charge: don't EVER use the "Reply To All" button in your email program. I mean EVER. 99.99% of the time you're just going to annoy someone.

Sigh. How many more years before "Handling Email 101" is a required course in schools?

Where you can go to learn more about email:
About.com's Email Page
iVillage's Email Netiquette More Email Netiquette

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